by M. D. Cooper
But they were still losing.
Despite the small victories of the ISF fighters, the Bollam’s ships pushed forward; there were just too many for them to hold back.
The Arc-5s fell back to provide cover for the Pike and Gilese as the ISF capital ships pulled further back toward their mother ship, now only five-hundred thousand kilometers distant.
A flash of light washing over her sensors, momentarily blinded Jessica. She reset her instruments and pulled in an update, amazed at what she saw. Sabrina had hit The Mark fleet with astounding kinetic energy, and completely obliterated the entire armada.
The pilots carried out the conversation as they streaked across the enemy fleet, peppering ships with beam fire and missiles.
The pilots acknowledged and worked to get as many engine shots as possible, a maneuver that was becoming increasingly difficult as the Boller targeting and evasion AI adapted to the fighter’s tactics.
Rock signaled his acknowledgement. The Black Death broke into a wide formation and boosted past the Boller ships they had been engaging. Jessica saw that the other two squadrons of Arc-6s fighting on the far side of Kithari were doing the same.
If Jessica could have moved her jaw, she would have gritted her teeth with determination. She knew better, but it still felt like Tanis was sending the squadron on a suicide run.
Their stasis shields appeared to be nearly invincible, but every pilot could see their reactor temperatures spike whenever the shields had to deflect a heavy barrage. Each time they did, they didn’t quite cool to their previous level.
There was a limit to how much punishment the Arc-6s could take.
The next wave of enemy ships was approaching fast, only a hundred thousand kilometers distant. Cordy began flagging potential targets and Rock spotted one he liked.
Jessica calmed herself, thinking of that porch she and Tanis would sit on one day as they remembered the old days.
Once more into the breach.
* * * * *
“What’s your plan?” Admiral Sanderson asked as Tanis directed her ships to fall back.
“The cruisers used the cover of battle to seed those asteroid clusters with RMs. When those ships advance past, they’re going to get a hundred nuclear fireballs up their asses.”
Sanderson nodded slowly, but still frowned. “Some ships will survive. Over half by tactical’s estimation.”
Tanis nodded. “We’re going to pull the same trick you guys did while I was flying across the galaxy. After what Sera did, the Van Allen belts on Kithari are going nuts. We’re going to syphon that radiation with the scoop and lance it out at them again. It’ll weaken their shields just before we pelt them with grapeshot.”
“If they come in range, we’ll do it again to them. I’m betting that it will re-instate the stalemate and buy us time to get our stasis shield up,” Tanis replied, her brow furrowed as she spun the main holo view, testing various strategies.
She looked up at the captain and admiral, both standing with her at the holo tank.
“There’s no good plan here, no sure win. We just have to hold them off and buy time. Honestly, it’s a damned miracle we’ve taken only the minor losses we have.”
Tanis really wanted to talk to Sera, she felt the woman would have some knowledge that could help out—keep her from using her weapon of last resort. But first she had to mollify the captain and admiral.
“What if the AST ships engage?” Sanderson asked.
“Then I’ll dance for joy,” Tanis replied. “That’s what I’m counting on.”
“The Boller ships will pass the asteroid fields in one minute,” the scan officer announced.
Tanis nodded in acknowledgement and took a deep breath, spreading her mind across all the ships and fighters in her fleet, accounting for each one and ensuring none would be caught in the attack.
The killing field was clear of ISF ships, every vessel cruising on their assigned trajectories.
She watched with her mind as much as eyes, witnessing the RMs come to life and streak out of their cover, driving toward the rear of the enemy fleet. The missiles jinked and shifted, using every trick their onboard NSAI could muster to avoid the defensive measures of their prey.
Not that there was much time to do so. The relativistic missiles were traveling at half the speed of light in less than a minute, leaving a thousand kilometers of hot plasma in their wake.
Both arms of the enemy fleet were obscured as the RMs nuclear warheads detonated. When the scan cleared, most of the enemy ships were still intact and operational, but their shields were either weakened or gone entirely.
Then the grapeshot hit.
It wasn’t the devastating swaths that the rail platforms in the Kapteyn’s system delivered, but it was enough. The unshielded vessels were torn apart, and many of the ships, whose shields survived the RMs saw them fail under the high-velocity kinetic impacts.
Bravely, remnants of the Boller fleet pressed forward, though many ships turned back.
Fifty ships advanced, now only a hundred thousand kilometers from the Intrepid. This form of warfare was strange to Tanis. The ships were moving slowly, fighting as though they were taking a two-dimensional battlefield, yet they flickered from position to position, moving erratically to avoid beam fire.
It was entirely unlike the high-velocity battles she had fought in Sol or over Victoria, where an engagement was measured in seconds.
She issued a final warning to the advancing fleet. Turn back, or be destroyed.
Ten ships did. Subsequently—over the next sixty seconds—two events occurred. One Tanis enacted, and the other she anticipated.
Firstly, the Intrepid altered course, pulling away from the moon Fierra and flew toward a strong band in the ga
s giant’s Van Allen belts, drawing in the radiation with one side of its ES scoop and funning it out the other in a focused stream of solar radiation.
More powerful than the beams of a hundred starships, the stream of radiation sliced through the weakened shields of the last forty ships.
Then, the second event occurred far across the battlefield: the eleven AST cruisers began to break their distant orbits.
* * * * *
Jessica replied.
Unlike the Intrepid, the AST dreadnaughts were built exclusively for war. Moreover, they were built to stop wars from ever happening. Each vessel supported hundreds of laser batteries, and dozens of rail guns.
Forming up in a loose line, roughly eight thousand kilometers across, the core-worlder ships pushed through the Boller ships with little resistance. As far as the pilots of the Black Death squadron could tell, not a single beam or missile broke through their shields.
The pilots of the Black Death pulled back from their harassment of the Boller Space Force’s second wave, letting the ships defend against the AST dreadnaughts. After just a few minutes, it became apparent that the core-world ships were not going to be slowed by any force thrown at them.
Tanis’s voice entered the minds of the twenty-three pilots.
No one responded for several seconds until Rock remembered himself and flagged acknowledgement on behalf of the squadron.
* * * * *
Sera stepped onto the Intrepid’s bridge and approached the holo tank where Tanis stood with the captain and admiral.
As she threaded the consoles, a whistle sounded, then a congratulatory shout, and a moment later, the entire bridge crew was cheering.
“I’m not sure that’s deserved,” Sera said, once the noise died down.
“I’m pretty sure it is,” Captain Andrews replied.
“One ship taking out two-hundred? Yes, that will go down in the history books for sure,” Admiral Sanderson said with a rare smile.
Sera looked over the holo projection of the battlefield.
“Quite the mess you guys have made—though it’s a miracle you’ve not lost any capital ships.”
Tanis nodded. “Keeping them out of range is key.”
“You can bet that a lot of systems will be considering the creation of single pilot fighters after this. Even the ones without stasis shields are nothing to sneeze at.”
“I can’t believe they ever fell out of fashion,” Tanis replied.
“A lot was lost, or discarded over the years,” Sera said with a sigh. “So what’s your plan for those AST ships? They’ve always been the real threat. Everything else was just a warmup.”
Tanis turned back to the holo tank, her expression grim. “Watch and see.”
* * * * *
Jessica and Jerry maintained a pattern of evasive maneuvers as they raced past the Boller ships, though little heed was paid to them as the fleet desperately defended against the AST dreadnaughts.
They passed into the vacant space surrounding their target, the massive warship looming large as they pushed their fighters with everything they had. Cordy had programmed the ship’s onboard NSAI to drop the picobombs during the short time the fighters would be within the dreadnaught’s shields.
There was barely a moment to think as the enemy vessel filled her vision and then, following a brief shudder as her fighter smashed through the dreadnaught’s shields, she was out in space again.
Jessica spun her vision, looking at her target, when she realized that Jerry wasn’t where he was supposed to be. Her sensor log showed that his ship entered the dreadnaught’s shields, but didn’t come out.
Jessica watched in mixed horror and sadness as the picobomb’s swarm became visible and began to consume the enemy ship. She hoped that Jerry hadn’t survived his collision. No one should die watching their body dissolve.
All the fighters struck their targets within seconds of each other, and, as the first dreadnaughts began to disintegrate and crumble into clouds of dust, escape pods began to pour out of all the AST vessels. Most made it free in time, but some dissolved even as they launched.
The Black Death squadron arched stellar north over the remnants of the Boller fleet, watching in horror as the system’s military shot down every last one of the AST escape pods.
REVELATIONS
STELLAR DATE: 10.29.8927 (Adjusted Years)
LOCATION: ISS Intrepid, Orbiting Fierra (6Mj Jovian)
REGION: Bollam’s World System, Bollam’s World Federation
Murmurs filled the bridge as the crew watched the AST ships disintegrate and the Boller fleet take up their grizzly task. No one cheered, though there were worn smiles while what remained of the enemy fleet pulled back and began rescue and recovery operations.
“Are you going to rescue any of Padre’s fleet?” Sera asked Tanis.
Tanis shook her head. “I will not. Though I sent a message to whoever is running the Bollam’s World fleet now that I won’t hinder any of their rescue operations.”
“Better late than never,” Captain Andrews gave a soft chuckle.
Tanis gave orders to recall the rest of the fleet and took a seat, trying her best not to wince at the pain in her head.
anis replied.
“We’re going to need to refuel before we make the jump,” Captain Andrews said. “The entire fleet is nearly dry.”
“You’re also going to need to get halfway across the system,” Sera added. She looked to Tanis, who nodded in response, and expanded the view in the holo tank to encompass the system. “The jump point we need to exit through is here,” she said and pointed to a location stellar north, beyond the bloated gas giant, Aurora.
“Well, that works out,” Andrews replied. “I wasn’t too excited about scooping around Kithari after you smashed through its upper clouds and we messed up its Van Allen belts.” He smiled in Sera’s direction. “Not that I mind overmuch—though the Bollers weren’t too happy about it.”
Tanis glanced at a holo display nearby. It showed the moon Fierra covered in dark clouds as fires caused by the debris from The Mark fleet spread across its northern hemisphere.
“Did the bios get off the world?” she asked; it was something she didn’t even bother to check in the heat of battle.
Sanderson nodded. “They evac’d less than two minutes after Sera did her little light show.”
“Smart,” Sera replied.
“So it’s decided then,” Tanis said as she stood. “We’ll scoop at Aurora—which is what I think they made it for anyway…I think.”
“Make sure you fill up your tanks—or whatever this ship uses—all the way,” Sera said. “If we scoop there, then run hard to the jump point, this monster can hit what… a tenth the speed of light before we drop to FTL?”
“That’s about right,” Captain Andrews replied with a nod. “What is your concern?”
“Well, the first is that FTL is a speed multiplier. If we hit at only 0.10c you’re looking at over two years to get to Ascella. The second is that we have a lot of work to do to cover our tracks.”
“I was thinking the same thing,” Tanis said with a sigh.
Sera nodded. “The AST isn’t going to just let you go. They’ll send fleets along your departure trajectory, skipping across space, looking for where we drop out. Then they’re going to extrapolate destinations and spread out the search.”